Cablog

More Investigate

I've been doing my bit over the weekend to promote Australia's newest current affairs magazine, Investigate. For those wondering what to look for, here's the front cover.

Besides having a vested interest, I believe it's a worthwhile magazine carrying interesting and varied stories with broad appeal.

James Morrow's in-depth interview with Peter Costello certainly has me reconsidering a man I once thought unelectable. For example he qualifies and articulates on 'social capital' and it's integration into everyday life. Plus his belief in strong symbolism, re the republic will also reassure many readers.

Speaking of 'unelectable', single and childless Labor pollie Julia Gillard is defended by Miranda Devine. Ann Coulter insists abortion is too important to be left to judges and Claire Morrow looks at ecstasy and terminal illness. Just a few of the pieces I've read so far from the Editorial and Opinion section.

Then there's a Lifestyle section including Money, Toys, Science, Technology, Food, Health, Books, Movies, Music, Sport, but thankfully no renovating or home decorating ! Phew, lucky it's a monthly. (Image enlarges)

Dream merchants

Man of Lettuce is produced on an automated publishing platform called Typepad. Typepad's parent, Six Apart, produces a second blogging tool called Movable Type.

For aspiring writers and diarists Six Apart is a dream, capable of changing lives. It's changed mine and many more.

Six Apart was created by a husband and wife team, Mena and Ben Trott. The Trotts, both 27 years old, wondered what to do with themselves after the dot-com bust. Read the story of their wild success in the Heralds Technology section. I love these guys ! 

via Tim Blair

Back to work

After a one week holiday I returned to work last night. And what a ripper it was, right from the word ‘go’. There were people and events everywhere meaning one thing, a need for cabs.

Sydney at this time of year, indeed at either end of summer is simply delightful. Daylight saving makes for long twilights of ideal balmy temperatures. These conditions had folks looking for outdoor action and entertainment straight after work.

They rushed home to change, then headed back out to make the most of parks, beaches, theatres, outdoor cinemas, a rock concert plus all night bars and clubs. Throw in the full moon and it was just about perfect...

Investigate magazine

Here's some good news. Today sees the launch of a new Australian current affairs magazine, Investigate. It's a glossy monthly magazine modelled on the successful New Zealand magazine of the same name and published by Investigate Publishing Pty Ltd.

An illustrious line up of writers has been assembled including James Morrow, Miranda Devine, Alan Anderson, Ann Coulter, Luke Slattery, Ian Wishart, Matt Hayden, Pat Sheil, Paul Ham, Michael Morrissey, Claire Morrow, Shelly Horton, Paul Ham, Eli Jameson, Jake Ryan, Alice McCormick plus, bringing up the rear, some cabbie called Adrian. Say what !?

That's the good news. Unfortunately, I'm unable to post here my first story titled, Cocaine Blues, subtitled... surviving a cabload of cokeheads. But if you all go out and purchase a copy of Investigate, for a measly $7.95, I'll be able to proudly state I've sold out to mainstream media ! Otherwise a case of grog goes to the tsunami relief fund. 

Seriously though, Investigate seeks to fill a hole in the Aussie market by presenting an alternative and fearless voice on current affairs. An independent magazine whose first loyalty is to the readers. As editor James Morrow explains,

Some magazines only exist to sell you something. Our main focus is telling you something.

For further information on Investigate here's the press release...

Lethal weapons

I opened the Port Macquarie local rag yesterday to find news of a teenager killed in a motor vehicle accident. Again. An image showed a group of distraught friends comforting each other at a twilight memorial service. The vehicle rolled off the Comboyne Mountain trapping the young fella inside. Death by fire.

Once again, my girlfriend's daughter knew the kid. 'How did she take it ?', I asked. 'Surprisingly, not as bad as the last one', she replied. Here she referred to a schoolmate killed late last year. He was thrown from the rear of a ute when it rolled on a backroad. Life for country kids. Given the rate of accidents they are touched by, a certain numbness is understandable.

Currently there is much grieving over the death of a 14 year old boy killed in Detroit, Michigan. Alex Nannoshi's all terrain vehicle collided with a snow-mobile on an ice lake. His family have set up a beautiful website, with some heart-rending messages posted,

i only have three months until i graduate and i wish you would be there. you will be but i wish i could see you. Its gonna be hard without you. It's already hard. mom and dad read these emails everynight. you made history. you had the biggest funeral ever. you were going to be the biggest ladies man of us all. everyone in the world knows who you are. i gave you our xmen game because i know you love it. i miss you already. tell me when you get this. I love you. big brother, Nick

It's such a friggin' waste all these kids checkin' out early. The young and inexperienced using lethal weapons. It sucks but what can you do....... (Images enlarge)

On the green

Here's a moblog from Cassegrains vineyard outside Port Macquarie. An annual music festival attracting around 3000 fans. I would like to think my star status scored my spot in an MSM tent but it's not true - I'm simply a guest of The Angel. Anyway it's a magic day and here comes The Waifs, followed by Pete Murray. Check this - adayonthegreen

Assyrians ripped

Well the results are in from the Iraqi election and one can rejoice that their fledgling democracy is off and running, albeit with a few splutters. That the Sunni population at large didn't believe it would happen and so boycotted the voting is well known.

What is little known is that another sector of Iraq, namely the Assyrians who expressed a strong desire to vote, were totally sidelined in their main province, the Nineveh Plains.

In a brazen and nearly unbelievable move, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headed by warlord Masoud Barzani has prevented voting by Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) Christians of the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq.

Prior to the election the Assyrian International News Agency warned up to 1.5 million Assyrian-Iraqis would be marginalized,

Referring to decades of persecution by the Iraqi state and Kurds, another activist added "We will resist our 'democratic' disenfranchisement every bit as vigorously as we resisted our disenfranchisement under Saddam and Barzani."

If the Interim Council can allow such a significant bloc be disenfranchised without investigation, what does this say for the future of Christian Iraqis ? Why isn't the Western media covering this, to give the Assyrians a voice over this blatant injustice ? 

Poor bugga them

Last night at work I listened to a couple of telling interviews on ABC local radio. First up on Inside Profile was John Howard who gave an insight into what he considers a good interview,

I think the good interviewers of political figures anyway, are those that recognise that on occasions you are entitled to give the person you are interviewing a hard time, because that's your job. But there are other occasions when really you owe an obligation to your listeners to let him or her have something to say because the public's interested in what they've got to say. Now the interviewers who strike the right balance between those two things are both the best interviewers, and also the interviewers I like talking to.

Balance, what a novel concept. In a wide ranging interview, what did presenter Monica Attard really grill the PM on ? Two sick puppies, Mandouh Habib and Cornelia Rau. Yet in my cab of late, I've heard no unsolicitored views on either...

Poor bugga me

I’ve had a crap week which right now has me thinking, maybe I’m experiencing PMT. Women have been insisting of late men have their own variation of the menstrual cycle, metaphorically at least. And if this is true, then middle-aged men must be subject to a form of menopause, no ?

Whatever, it was a week which started with my being reported by a News Ltd. wanker. On Monday afternoon I waited for 15 minutes alone at Holt Street, before a young bloke came out chatting to a colleague. He spotted me, opened the door and hopped in, then continued the conversation through the open window. Without any acknowledgement to say, ‘Hi, I’ll just be one minute’, leaving me thinking, ‘what, am I a slave..?’...

Overpaid wankers

After the Canberra fires, I was astonished 4 lives and 500 homes could be lost in a major city in the twenty-first century. And the subsequent news boffins had discovered a new phenomenon, the 'superfire', beggared belief. Hey, more research was needed.

Well ABC TV news last night carried the results of this research, sorta...

Jim Gould from the Bushfire CRC says the results have lead to the development of new prediction tools that will be available by next season.

Then some clown told us they'd discovered the longer an area has been unburnt the hotter the fire. Unbelievable. Yet when I look through the relevant departments responsible for forest management, buggar all importance is placed on hazard reduction of excessive forest fuel loads.

Only the once proficient managers of all forests, the NSW Forestry Commission seem to be proactive. However they now look after mainly plantation forests after being sidelined in recent years by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.   

Christ, any idiot knows the more fuel feeding a fire, the hotter the bastard gets. But oh no, now we have issues of sustainability and ecological bio-diversity on account of political correct notions of clear skies and unburnt mammels.

Here's an recent article in the Australian arguing the case for hazard reduction and following is a letter I had published in the Daily Telegraph following the Canberra fires. Two years on, nothing's changed...